Doctor Neo Cortex
Doctor Neo Periwinkle Cortex, most known as Doctor Neo Cortex, N. Cortex, Cortex, or Doctor Cortex, is a professional evil scientist and the primary antagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. He is known as the creator of his nemesis: Crash Bandicoot. Personality he classic traits of being short-tempered, reckless, having no apparent conscience (as cited by Doctor Nefarious Tropy in Crash Twinsanity), and frequently manipulating others to get what he wants. Like many stereotypical villainous mad scientists, Cortex holds a grudge against other scientists for ridiculing his outlandish (yet nearly workable) ideas, and was originally driven towards world domination by the desire to prove his colleagues wrong.Crash Bandicoot NTSC instruction manual, page 19 This no longer seems to be the case, as it is revealed in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped that Cortex is working under the orders of Uka Uka, one of the only two individuals that Cortex fears (beside Madame Amberly). Although Cortex talks big and acts confident in most of his appearances, he can be shown to become nervous (sometimes downright spineless) when put in the face of extreme and immediate danger (i.e. confronting Uka Uka, running out of ammo while fighting enemies, etc.). Another notable personality trait is his inability to plan ahead or learn from his mistakes; he often relies on his minion Tiny Tiger to eliminate Crash by himself, despite the fact that Tiny is too incompetent to do so alone. This impulsive behaviour is first witnessed in the opening cinematic of Crash Bandicoot, in which Cortex refuses to heed the warnings of his then-henchman Doctor Nitrus Brio and tries to make Crash the general of his army, despite numerous past failures.Doctor Nitrus Brio: But Doctor Cortex! We have not determined the cause of past failures! Doctor Neo Cortex: Moron! This bandicoot will be my general! And he will lead my Cortex Commandos to world domination! This time I shall reign triumphant! (Crash Bandicoot) Cortex can become quite irritated or agitated when things don't go his way, especially in Crash Tag Team Racing; while most other characters express mild annoyance when Crash fails to perform an errand for them, Cortex out-and-out lashes out at Crash the second he comes back empty-handed, calling him a "blithering imbecile" and "the worst mutation he's ever created". This inability to form long lasting, mutually supportive relationships with other characters is also evident in the crossover game Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, in which Doctor Cortex temporarily teams up with Spyro the Dragon villain Ripto to destroy both Crash and Spyro, only to start bickering with Ripto at one point. Cortex is not above lying and deceiving others to fulfill his evil desires, most of which include gathering Crystals to power up his doomsday weapons. He frequently uses the gullible Crash Bandicoot to complete these deeds, most evident in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Tag Team Racing, claiming in both games to use the weapons for "mass helping people" as he puts it. His egotistical tendencies also cause him to alter facts about his life, claiming himself to be the most popular student in his school, even though in reality he was an object of hatred among many students, one going as far as to toss a dagger in his direction.Doctor Neo Cortex: I was 8 years old and the most popular student in the academy. Ahh, yes. (A dagger is thrown at Young Cortex, but misses.) Doctor Neo Cortex: How they loved me! (Crash Twinsanity) Cortex's vain side becomes most obvious in Crash Tag Team Racing, in which he often calls himself such things as beautiful and pretty. For most of the time, Cortex doesn't care for the lives and feelings of others, caring only for himself and what he wants. While this seems to be the case in most games, the one moment in which Cortex actually shows concern for someone else is in Crash Twinsanity, in which at one point his niece, Nina Cortex, is kidnapped by an evil version of Crash. It is at this point clear that Nina is the only living thing that Cortex cares about, with the latter going as far as thoughtlessly putting himself in danger of being mauled by the ferocious Evil Crash during the level "Bandicoot Pursuit". Besides this instance, Cortex is largely unempathetic, seeing others only as tools for his quest in world domination (although presumably he likes N. Gin, Tiny and Dingodile really, as he puts up with them despite their past failings). It is unknown whether Cortex feels any regret for replacing Nina's hands with metallic death-traps, though this is unlikely, given Cortex's psychopathic tendencies. ''Appearance Cortex appears as a short, balding, yellow-skinned, large-headed human with a giant ''N (which according to the official Crash Bandicoot website and Wrath of Cortex official strategy guide, stands for "Nerd") located on his forehead. In all of the games before the Radical Entertainment era, this N appears to be painted or branded on; in Crash Tag Team Racing and Crash of the Titans, the N is shown to be metal-plated. He is most often seen wearing a lab coat, with some sort of black clothing underneath, and donning rubber (leather in later installments) gloves and boots. Cortex is balding, with hair only on the sides of his head and a thick strand on top. Whatever hair he does have is black (blue in some games) and frazzled. He is also shown to have a short beard with the same color along with this. Cortex is a person of short stature in most of his games, seldom being taller than Crash in any of them (with the exceptions of Crash of the Titans and to a lesser extent Crash Bash and Crash Twinsanity).